This invention relates to a fishing lure with a rigid body, a hook protective groove, and a controlled moving hook with the purpose of making fishing safer, especially for children while they are casting with my lure.
Prior art lures, which claim protection for hooks, use flexible enclosures. They rely on the force of the fish bite to push the protective cover aside, exposing the hook. Their main purpose is for preventing hooks from catching on weeds, rocks, roots, and other debris. In example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,964,202 by Aaro Arvo Ruppa, 4,614,054 by Otto K. Fovenyessy, 3,815,274 by George H. Schleif, 4,433,502 by Edward J. Steeve, and 4,817,325 by John Thomas. There are other patents of this general type, but these are representative.
A patent of particular interest in this group of patents which rely on the force of a fish bite to expose the hook, is the U.S. Pat. No. 3,665,634 to Baud. The Baud patent has the hook fully enclosed in the lure body; and an opening in the body is provided for receiving a permanently attached leader. This leader extends into the body interior to engage a lever which is offset from a pivot on which the hook is mounted. Another trigger device, designed to resemble the fin of a fish, extends upwardly out of the body and holds the opposite side of the lever arm to which the leader is attached, in a cocked or retracted position inside the body. A substantial amount of force may be extended by the leader onto the lever arm without pivoting the hook outside the body, because it is secured by means of the trigger fin. The intent of this lure is to cause the hook to be released by a fish depressing the trigger fin. This moves the fin lever out of engagement with the holding latch on the hook lever arm; so that the force on the leader then rapidly pivots the hook out of the body of the lure, permitting it to engage the mouth of the fish. The device shown in this patent is more complex than some of the other devices discussed above and found in the prior art; but generally, all of them require some force exerted by the fish on the lure body to extend the hook into a position where it may be used to catch the fish. It also should be noted that once the hook has been extended in the lure of Baud, it is necessary to push on the barbed end of the hook to force it back into the body, to reset the device for a subsequent use.
These and other lures still have the capacity to jab, stab or "hook" someone while handling during normal fishing duties, also in their storage. If the hook sticks far enough to bury the barb, it is very difficult and painful to remove the hook, sometimes requiring expensive hospital care.
It is desirable to provide a safety lure which overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art.